Parent-Reported Behavioral and Emotional Responses of Children to Disaster and Parental Psychopathology

ABSTRACT

Child disaster mental health research has been largely limited by investigation of one disaster at a time and inconsistent methods across different studies. This study assessed 160 survivors of 3 disasters with structured diagnostic interviews, asking about the behavioral and emotional disaster reactions of their 266 children, ages 3–17. Most children had ≥1 postdisaster behavior change or disaster-related posttraumatic stress symptom. The children’s postdisaster behavioral and emotional problems were associated with parental postdisaster psychopathology. The results underscore the importance of asking disaster survivors about their children’s disaster reactions and considering parental disaster experiences and reactions in addressing their children’s reactions.

KEYWORDS:

• Children
• disaster mental health
• parents
• psychiatric disorder
• structured diagnostic interview

Additional information

Funding

This work was funded by NIH R01 award # MH40025.

Notes on contributors

Carol S. North

Carol S. North, MD, MPE, serves as Medical Director of the Altshuler Center for Education & Research at Metrocare Services and holds The Nancy and Ray L. Hunt Chair in Crisis Psychiatry as a Professor of Psychiatry at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas. She specializes in research in disaster mental health epidemiology, community mental health, and psychiatric nosology.

Steffi Mendoza

Steffi Mendoza, MD, is currently a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellow at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, and her interests focus in child and adolescent psychiatry.

Zorica Simic

Zorica Simic, MS, is a clinical research coordinator in Dr. North’s research group in the Department of Psychiatry at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, with broad interest in clinical and community psychiatry research.

Betty Pfefferbaum

Betty Pfefferbaum, MD, JD, is the George Lynn Cross Research Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences of The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center and College of Medicine in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She is internationally recognized as a leader in child disaster mental health research and its application to clinical practice and disaster interventions.